News Advisory

11/16/06

Nobel laureate Dr. Russell A. Hulse, associate vice president for research and economic development at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been elected to the board of directors of Battelle, the world’s largest independent research and development organization. As part of its wide-ranging activities, Battelle manages or co-manages a number of national laboratories for the federal government.

“Russell Hulse is one of the world's preeminent physicists and has been since the discovery more than 30 years ago that led to his Nobel Prize,” said John B. McCoy, chairman of the Battelle board of directors. “He will bring tremendous experience and knowledge to Battelle and we are very pleased to welcome him to the board.”

Dr. Russell Hulse, Nobel laureate
and associate vice president for
research and economic development
at UT Dallas, will join the board of
directors at research giant Battelle.

Hulse shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the first binary pulsar, considered by many to be among the top scientific discoveries of the 20th Century.

Hulse is a principal research physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. He began a concurrent relationship with UT Dallas in 2004 as a visiting professor of physics and of science and mathematics education. He later assumed the additional role of associate vice president for research and economic development at UT Dallas.

In recent years, Hulse has become deeply interested in improving the state of science and mathematics education in this country, both as provided by community-based resources such as museums and science centers as well as through the schools. At UT Dallas, Hulse has worked with the university’s Science/Mathematics Education Department, developing a close collaboration between UT Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science and pursuing various innovations in science education applicable to museums, schools and the university’s undergraduate curriculum.

A native of the Bronx, N.Y., Hulse earned a B.S. degree in physics in 1970 from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. He received a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1975 from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle oversees 20,000 employees in more than 120 locations worldwide, including five national laboratories it manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Battelle conducts $3.7 billion in research and development annually through contract research, laboratory management and technology commercialization.